Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister: data from the Australian Tax Office shows that four out of five Tasmanian workers earn less than $80,000 a year. Why is the Prime Minister giving large multinationals a tax cut at the same time as leaving four out of five Tasmanian workers with absolutely nothing?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can well understand the excitement and the anticipation that the Leader of the Opposition has as he awaits the Treasurer's budget tomorrow night. I can understand him being convulsed with all of the speculation and feverish questions. He only has to wait until tomorrow night. Rather than asking speculative questions based out of fantasy, he can learn it all tomorrow night from the Treasurer.

The Treasurer will set out a plan that will drive jobs and growth right across Australia. It will drive jobs and growth right across Tasmania, where—as the honourable members representing Tasmanian electorates know full well—we are seeing stronger growth there than we have for many years. The reason for that is in large part because of the free trade agreements that Andrew Robb negotiated when he was trade minister. Let us not forget that all of those jobs in Tasmania that are the result of that free trade agreement—especially the agreement with China—would be gone if Labor had its way.

Remember the bitter and vicious campaign the trade unions waged against the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement? Remember how the Labor Party was opposing it? Only at the eleventh hour did they finally buckle and recognise the reality that the opportunities for Australia in free trade in those big markets are enormous. Time and time again—pick your policy area—Labor is unfailing in its determination to stand in the way of jobs, growth and opportunity.

Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer: will the Treasurer please advise the House of the importance of a strong budget to support our transitioning economy? How important is sound economic management and fiscal discipline for promoting jobs and growth in our new economy?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Mr Speaker: the Prime Minister has just made clear that we should not be asking questions about the budget today. Does that only apply to members on this side of the House?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not here to answer questions. The Treasurer has the call.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Petrie for his question and his keen interest in jobs and growth. The budget I will bring down tonight, on behalf of Turnbull government, will not be a typical budget. This is not a typical time. This is a time when the government needs a strong economic plan for Australia's future. This will be a plan that will stick to our plan for jobs and growth by backing in. Australians are out there making this transition and making our economy work every single day. It is a budget that will fix specific problems in our tax system to sustainably meet our commitments for future generations. It is a budget that will ensure the government lives within its means. Australians, Australian businesses and Australian households are living within their means, and they know that the government must live within its means. That is what the budget I will bring down tomorrow night will do, because when you do that you are in a position to bring the budget back to balance and address the long-term issues of debt.

This budget will contain affordable commitments, with real money that is actually there, not the sort of commitments we saw from those opposite. They were spending money from mining taxes that never came in. They were spending money that was never there, letting down Australian families and letting down people relying on those commitments, because those opposite made commitments with money that was not there. And that is the problem of the economic management approach of those opposite. What we on this side will do is live within our means and have affordable commitments—like the $2.9 billion we have announced and committed to for our hospitals and the $2 billion that we announced yesterday for education. This is real money that is focused on getting real results and outcomes. That is what a budget needs to do. It needs to make commitments when the money is actually there and you can actually afford, and deliver on, those commitments.

So, in this budget, innovation and science will continue to prosper under this government—a defence plan for local high-tech manufacturing and technology; export trade deals to generate new business opportunities; incentives for small business to go out there and work hard, as they always do, and they are the hope of the side; a sustainable budget crackdown on tax avoidance and ensuring that the funding commitments that we make can be paid for. They will be paid for by saving, not by tax increases like we have seen from those opposite, who want to put a $100 billion tax burden in addition on the Australian economy. That is not a plan for jobs and growth. What I will deliver is a plan for jobs and growth.